page_title: Ropczyce
section_title: Jewish history
hierarchical_section_title: Ropczyce / History / Jewish history
caption_attribution_description: English: Parish Church in Ropczyce
context_page_description: Ropczyce is a town in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship in south-eastern Poland, situated in the valley of the Wielopolka River. The town has a population of 15,098. and is the seat of Ropczyce-Sędziszów County.
context_section_description: The earliest information about Jews settling in Ropczyce dates back to 1564. It was noted then that four Jewish families, i.e. about 30 people, lived on the farm of the Gryf family. In 1604, King Sigismund III Vasa granted Ropczyce with a law, following which only two Jewish families (of a district’s leaseholder and of a tax collector) were allowed to live in the town, however, they were strictly forbidden to 'do business and produce alcohol...’
  The 17th century was the time of the town’s stagnation and downfall. Ropczyce was plundered by Swedish troops in 1655 and conclusively devastated in 1657 by the army of George II Rákóczi, the Prince of Transylvania. Many houses in the town were deserted and ruined after the wars. As nobody paid for them, the local authorities tried to occupy the houses with new inhabitants. However, Polish townsmen were not interested in it, and so Jews were the buyers, despite the fact that the ban on their settling in the town was still in effect. The law was broken for the first time in 1675, when the Town Council allowed Józef Szmul, a Jew, to acquire a house at the Market Square under condition of renovating the building. In exchange for that, he was exempted from paying taxes for two years.
  At the end of the 18th century, Ropczyce became a significant center of Chassidism after the famous Naftali Zvi Horowitz (1760–1827) settled in the town (He was born on 22 May 1760, the day that the Baal Shem Tov, founder of Chassidism, died). He was the son of Menachem Mendel Rubin, the rabbi of Lesko and a follower of two great tzadikkim: Elimelech of Leżajsk (Lizhensk) and Menachem Mendel of Rymanów. Tzadik Naftali Zvi Horowitz was the author of, among others,Zera Kodesh (a collection of comments to the Torah, published in 1868), and Ohel Naftali (a collection of sayings, published in 1911). At the end of his life, he left Ropczyce and settled in Łańcut where he died on 8 May 1827 (corresponding to 11 Iyar 5587) and where he was buried. Asher of Ropczyce was the next tzadik of the town. The sons of Naftali Zvi Horowitz also became tzadikkim: Eliezer Horowitz – in Dzików near Tarnobrzeg, and Jakub Horowitz (named The Small Baal Shem Tov, usually translated into English as Master of the Good Name, due to numerous miracles that he performed) – in Kolbuszowa and later in Mielec.
  Up until World War II Ropczyce was a ‘shtetl’ (Yiddish: ראָפּשיץ , Ropshits, Ropshitz, Ropschitz‎) with a significant Jewish population. There is a Ropshitz Hasidic dynasty.
  The Germans occupied Ropczyce in September 1939 and immediately began brutalizing the Jewish population, at that time around 1000 people.  They burned the synagogue and shortly began to conscript Jews for forced labor.  Many Jewish refugees from nearby villages came to Ropczyce during the next two years.  In May, 2942, 75 men were deported to a labor camp in Pustkow.  In June, there was another roundup where 23 people were murdered on the spot and others were sent to Pustkow.  Later in the month, the remaining Jews were forced into an overcrowded ghetto.  In July, the Germans shot 28 people, children and the elderly, and took the rest of the Jewish population to Sedziszow Malopolski.  Several hundred were shot there and the rest sent by train to Belzec where they were immediately gassed.  The number of survivors among the Ropczyce Jews is unknown.
caption: The Parish Church of the Transfiguration in Ropczyce
exif: {"Image Make": "EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY", "Image Model": "KODAK EASYSHARE ZD710 ZOOM DIGITAL CAMERA", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "576", "Image YResolution": "576", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Microsoft Windows Photo Gallery 6.0.6000.16386", "Image DateTime": "2008:09:01 13:32:34", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "2354", "Image Padding": "[]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "1/96", "Thumbnail YResolution": "1/96", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "14568", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "2468", "EXIF ExposureTime": "3355443/1073741824", "EXIF FNumber": "4", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "64", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:08:22 17:53:45", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:08:22 17:53:45", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "8738133/1048576", "EXIF ApertureValue": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "6606029/1048576", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3072", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2304", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "14394", "EXIF ExposureIndex": "64", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Custom", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "38", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "EEBC2FDE415F4CE38EE2B6F6B1E68B51", "EXIF Padding": "[]", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "4156"}